THE CASE FOR PROHIBITION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2485, 26 September 1922, Page 3

THE CASE FOR PROHIBITION.

ADDRESS BY MR. BURTON,

• __ M.A. There was .only a moderate attendance at the Town Hall last night to hear Mr Burton, M.A., state the case for Prohibition., The speaker received a very patienl hearing, and dealt most eloquently and logically with the subject, and maintained the close interest of the audience throughout. The Mayor (Mr Chrystali) occupied the chair and introduced the speaker. Mr Burton said there will be three issues on the ballot paper: Continuance, State Purchase and Control, and Prohibition. In the event of Prohibition being carried no sum by way of compensation will be paid to the Liquor interests. The will of the people becomes effective six months from the time of the poll. He said State Purchase and Control is a dead and utterly discredited issue. It is on the ballot paper simply through the political influence of the liquor Traffic. Before there can be any question of State Control there would first of all have to be State Purchase. No government likely to be formed in New Zealand dare invest £20,000,000 in such an uncertain investment as the Liquor Traffic. The Liquor Traffic has long been recognised as such a "potential danger' to the nation that for many years it has been; 'under a strong system of control—'the Licensing system. It exists only on the sufferance of the people. The Prohibition movement—no small gang of crazy fanatics, but 270,000 people who desire the progress and prosperity of New Zealand —brings the following indictment against the Liquor Traffic: —(1) Scientifically alcohol has been proved to be a racial poison. Every child in the upper standards of our State schools is taught: “The habitual use of alcohol, even in small doses, is harmful, especially in its ultimate effect.” The case against the beverage use of alcohol as from the scientific and medical" side is now closed. Alcohol is a poison, useful, like certain other poisogs, such as strychnine and cocaine, in certain special stages of some cases of diseases —but still a poison. The only commonsense thing to do is to place it in the same category and under the same control as any other deadly drug. (2) From the economic point of view, the Liquor Traffic is a heavy burden on the prosperity of the country. The direct charge on the State for wastage caused by it is well over £500,000 annually. This sum is made up by the cost to the country of Roto Roa and Pakatoa, destitute children who are a charge on the State through the drunkenness of one or both parents, the proportion of gaol, hospital and mental asylum expenditure' caused by liquor, the maintenance and upkeep of nearly one-third of the police force of the country, and upwards of one-half of the old age pensions paid. This half-million for wastage, however, comprises only a very small count. We must, said the speaker, also consider the upkeep of the Salvation Army and the various church institutions which, are dealing- with drinking and its afterma-tli. This also is a charge on the real wealth of the community—just as real as if the sums employed by their institutions were raised by compulsory instead of voluntary taxation. The Liquor Traffic causes the country a loss of real wealth of at least £8,000,000 annually. All wealth is finally produced through the agency of production—the men working. Five per cent, at the very least of general inefficiency, is caused through drinking. -Last year the production of the country would be valued in the region of £150,000,000. Five per cent, increased efficiency would give approximately £7,500,000 increase in real production. This does not mean merely that the sum mentioned would be circulating, but that real wealth to that extent would be added to the nation —a much more important thing. Thus the Lquor Traffic, through impaired efficiency and expense 'of wastage, costs the country in the region of at least £8,000,000 annually. As opposed to this, the best that it can say for itself is that perhaps in 1923 two and a-half millions by way of revenue may be collected for tlie Government through" its channels. 'So far this revenue has never exceeded a total of £1,315,000, counting in license fees. The balance against the Liquor Traffic, said the speaker, is obvious. Even without increased efficiency —the great factor —the mere writing off of £500,000 wastage, and the re-spending of the £7,500,000 at present spent in liquor would balance the revenue, and leave us uo worse off than we were before. The Traffic say, said Mr Burton, that they are employing ,6,000 people. If for a turnover of £7,500,000 they are only employing 6,000 people, it is time they got out and made room for industries which can employ a fair quota of labour. Any other industry would be- employing upwards of twice as many men for such a turnover. After all, said the speaker, it is the social count which is the heaviest. The Liquor Traffic breaks hearts and homes .and lives. It undermines the morals of the community, and causes an immense amount of wreckage and misery in the life of the people. Any destroyer of life must ultimately go before the onward march of the people, who climb to better life, by breaking the shackles of ancient tyrannies such as the Liquor Traffic.

In answer to a question on drugs, the lecturer pointed out that no drug scourge has as yet been reported from (lie No-License areas of New Zealand. Clutha, for instance, has been very dry for 28 years, and even the Liquor Traffic ■cjimint find it there. The drag scourge in 1917-1918 attacked the underworlds of great cities like London, Paris, Berlin and New York (then wet). The neurotic and unbalanced temperaments particularly gather in the underworld. "VYe have nothing to correspond in New Zealand. The lecturer showed that the figures of the importation of opium into the U.S.A. and Canada indicated marked decreases in recent vears, U.S.A. figures being: 1919," 316,713 lbs.; 1920, 224,152 lbs.; 1921, 96,668 lbs. These figures, he heldj are conclusive, as it is on an alleged increase of these figures that the Liquor Traffic base their'ease for increased drag addiction. The lecturer "illustrated his address with personal observation and experiences, and was accorded hearty applause at the conclusion.

The Mayor, in moving a vote of tlmnks, spoke sympathetically of the movement, and urged the women to take an active part in the campaign. Mi' Alex. Speirs, in speaking to the motion, regretted that there was not a larger attendance.